Tuesday, January 12, 2010

The Dodgers agreed to terms with Jason Repko (one-year contract, reportedly worth a cool half-million), resolving the first of nine pending arbritration cases about which the club will have to deal:

The upcoming season figures to provide Repko, a supplemental first-round draft choice 11 years ago, with his best chance yet of finally reaching the major leagues and staying there. The Dodgers traded veteran Juan Pierre, their only backup outfielder, to the Chicago White Sox last month. For now, that leaves Repko to compete with the less-experienced Xavier Paul and two non-roster invitees, 30-something journeymen Prentice Redman and Michael Restovich, for one and possibly two backup spots. [...]

Thus far, Repko's professional road has been a rocky one. To date, he has a grand total of 478 big league plate appearances, with just 27 of those coming over the past three seasons. After a promising rookie campaign in 2005, he was out for more than two months of 2006 with a severely sprained left ankle he suffered while trying to make a leaping catch at the center-field wall. He then missed all of 2007 after tearing his left hamstring, also while trying to make a catch, in a spring training game.

He spent most of the next two years in Triple-A, and his only big league action of 2009 was a September callup during which he went hitless in five at-bats.

Repko has a career average of .226 with 11 homers and 47 RBIs in 230 big league games. He has spent 11 seasons in the minors, including his past 4½ at Triple-A, and has a career minor league average of .273.

So we've wasted no time going after Repko, while continuing to let Bills, Brox, Kuo, Brim Reaper, and four starting position players fester like an open sore. I refuse to get all excited about the equivalent of unlocking Bjorn on Peggle; he's helpful, sure, but nowhere near as potent as some of the other guys with which we have yet to deal. And there's a lot of levels left, my friends.